The present invention generally relates to an apparatus and a method for recording material added to and removed from a vehicle-mounted container and, more specifically, to an apparatus and method for recording feed delivered to pens in feedlots on an ingredient per pen basis.
The majority of beef in North America is produced en masse in facilities known as feedlots in which cattle are sorted according to age, type, owner and various other criteria into pens which average around 200 animals each. A large feedlot may contain 80,000 animals sorted into 400 pens. Within a feedlot, feed is formulated from a recipe comprising a number of different ingredients. Generally, ingredients are loaded in vehicles at a central loading site and delivered to individual pens. Some feedlots may pre-mix the ingredients before loading the mixture into the truck, while others may load the individual ingredients into vehicles having a vehicle-mounted feed mixer. The vehicles typically include a weigh scale having transducers which generate a signal representative of the weight of the feed in the vehicle container and display the weight on an electronic digital display to enable the vehicle operator to determine the quantity of feed to discharge into the feedbunker at each pen. It is also known to provide vehicle mounted devices associated with weigh scales for storing weight, pen and ration identification numbers. Such information may be stored in a memory associated with the scale indicator, or may be transmitted via a wireless or other such communications link to an office computer.
Sophisticated computer systems for managing feedlot operations are known in the art. Cureton et al U.S. Pat. No. 5,457,627 granted on Oct. 10, 1995 for xe2x80x9cFeedlot Computer Network Installation and Interactive Method of Using the Same to Assign Feed Loads and Animal Pen Substances to Feed Delivery Vehicles Available at a Feedmill in the Feedlotxe2x80x9d discloses such a system.
However, it has been found that existing systems do not provide a mechanism for quickly and automatically logging the feed delivered to a pen on an ingredient per pen basis.
One aspect of the present invention relates to a data logging device for logging data associated with material added to and removed from a material transport vehicle having a material container and an electronic weigh scale for generating a signal representative of the weight of material in said container, comprising a display and user input device; means responsive to an increase in said signal for displaying the weight of material added to said container and responsive to input of a material identification code for storing the said identification code and the weight of material added to said container; and means responsive to a decrease in said signal for displaying the weight of material discharged from said container and responsive to a input destination site identification code for storing said destination site and the weight of material discharged at said site.
Another aspect of the present invention relates of a method of logging data respecting the addition and removal of material to and from a material transport vehicle.